Books: Hardly Hopkins

Many readers still remember the alcoholic hero of The Lost Weekend
desperately trying to hock his typewriter to buy booze and finding the
New York pawnshops closed; the shops are owned by Jews, and they are
closed because it is Yom Kippur, the most important of Jewish holidays.
This novel presents a similar but even more poignant dilemma. The
heroine's older sister has got herself pregnant by her boss, a married
man; she tries desperately to cash a check for an abortion, but finds
she cannot...